A symposium at Cornell Law School Saturday, Feb. 28, revisits Brown v. Board of Education on the 50th anniversary of the landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision.
New York, NY (February 25, 2004) -- Within minutes of a stroke or other brain injury, neurons begin to die, a process that is followed by a cascade of further cell death, due in part to proteins released from injured cells. These proteins tell surrounding, healthy cells to die, a process termed apoptosis. These events occur over several days and may be more devastating than the original injury.Now, Weill Cornell Medical College researchers, working together with a team of researchers from Europe, have shed light on the proteins in healthy neurons that receive the apoptotic messages. In a study published in the journal Nature, they report the discovery that Sortilin, a protein whose function has been incompletely understood, plays a key role in conveying the message of apoptosis. Sortilin is a cell surface receptor, a protein that receives signals from outside the cell to modify the cell's behavior.
Dr. JoAnn Difede, a psychologist at New York-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center and an expert in the treatment of trauma, is using virtual reality exposure therapy to treat post-traumatic stress disorder in victims of the WTC attacks, as well as to treat a number of phobias in the general public.
Cornell's Institute of Food Science will host a symposium, "Research and Development of New and Emerging Food Processes and Products," May 3-4 on the Ithaca campus.
The Chinese Students and Scholars Association at Cornell University has organized and is sponsoring its first "China Culture Week," beginning this week and running through the first weeks of March.
The Cornell Public Service Center and the Office of the Cornell Commitment are seeking nominations for the seventh annual Community Spirit Awards Program, which honors Cornell University students for exemplary community volunteering. This awards program was developed in the spring of 1998 at the request of the Cornell Public Service Center's community partners as a means to recognize outstanding students volunteering in the local community. (February 23, 2004)
Cornell University President Jeffrey S. Lehman will present his first campuswide open lecture on campus regarding affirmative action in higher education Friday, March 5, from 4:30 to 5:30 p.m. in 401 Warren Hall; a reception will follow. In his talk, titled "From Bakke to Grutter: Lessons Learned," Lehman will discuss why affirmative action in higher education has been such a challenging concept for Americans to understand, and he will draw on his experience as dean of the University of Michigan Law School during the five and one-half years that Grutter v. Bollinger was making its way through the courts. The U.S. Supreme Court definitively upheld the Michigan Law School's use of affirmative action in its admission policy in an opinion issued in June 2003. (February 23, 2004)
How do former dictatorial regimes become democracies? They begin by reshaping the laws that govern society, said Elena Poptodorova to a roomful of law students in G85 Myron Taylor Hall, Feb. 11.
New York, NY (February 19, 2004) -- Debunking a popular myth about vasectomy, a new study by physician-scientists at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center finds that vasectomy reversal is highly effective, even 15 years or more after the vas deferens, the tube that carries sperm, is blocked. The study, published in the January Journal of Urology, documents the highest pregnancy rates following vasectomy of any study to date.Whether a man had a vasectomy this year or 15 years ago, there was no difference in the pregnancy rate achieved following a vasectomy reversal, with an average 84-percent likelihood of pregnancy over two years, the study finds. (Comparatively, healthy men without vasectomy can expect a pregnancy rate of 90 percent.) Previous studies have demonstrated pregnancy rates following vasectomy reversal of only 50-60 percent, a difference that can be attributed to advances in vasectomy-reversal techniques. The study also finds that at intervals of greater than 15 years, the pregnancy rate dropped to 44 percent.
eCornell, a developer and marketer of online professional education courses from Cornell University, is being restructured to bring the size of its organization in line with the revenue growth pattern. The company is consolidating talent and skills to focus primarily on selling its existing catalog of courses. eCornell will continue to serve its current and future individual and corporate customers worldwide. The company will maintain a core development team to continue its innovations, in conjunction with Cornell faculty, in collaborative, online learning, and to develop new programs in 2004. (February 20, 2004)
